Silly question since no one has really had a chance to play with this thing.... what kind of quality can we expect from these preamps ? Same as the Fireface UC ? This will be a dealbreaker for me. I'd like the best all in one solution available at this time, that works on a PC and isnt priced like a Orpheus.

That is the real question for me. THE SOUND. The feature set is very cool. However the Apogee Duet broke the price performance barrier. Even the new Mackie series is very good! At 88.2 either of the above units will put out very pro audio! If this plays in that league or surpasses it I will be the first in line because neither The Duet or Onyx 820I has digital I/O

Jazztone

P.S. Screw the color I make music with freq. of sound wave not light.....

This thing looks interesting. I think it's getting compared with the duet because of the shape... that's about the only thing they have in common. This thing craps all over the duet feature-wise (hardware and software). I should know, I have (and love) a Duet. One youtube clip showed the breakout cable RME uses. It makes the Apogee one look like it's from M-Audio. If this thing sounds comparable to the Duet, it's getting replaced in a heartbeat. WAY more flexible mobile solution imho.

come to think of it, it seems like a poor mans ULN2. Similar connectivity options (2 analog i/o, pres, adat, spdif, midi, headphone, di) plus and extensive dsp mixer with processing. Probably the MH is a legue or two above in terms of quality and depth of product both hardware and software. But this could offer a similar somewhat more humble solution.

come to think of it, it seems like a poor mans ULN2. Similar connectivity options (2 analog i/o, pres, adat, spdif, midi, headphone, di) plus and extensive dsp mixer with processing. Probably the MH is a legue or two above in terms of quality and depth of product both hardware and software. But this could offer a similar somewhat more humble solution.

It works in Windows... Why on earth do MH exclude such a big market group?

It works in Windows... Why on earth do MH exclude such a big market group?

so they can concentrate on giving their users on macs the absolute best product and suport they can. Catering to pc users may make that harder or impossible, seeing as MH are quite a small company that puts out a great quality product for pro use on the mac. I guess I should've said "if you're on a mac" this kinda provides a poor mans uln2, in terms of functionality and mobility.

so they can concentrate on giving their users on macs the absolute best product and suport they can. Catering to pc users may make that harder or impossible, seeing as MH are quite a small company that puts out a great quality product for pro use on the mac. I guess I should've said "if you're on a mac" this kinda provides a poor mans uln2.

I have DAWs with both Windows and MacOS, though some audio applications that I use are only on Windows (Sound Forge, Sonar, Izotope RX). Which kinda puts me off buying a MH ULN-8.

I really like RME hardware and my Fireface 800 has excellent drivers. My only concern is that I'd like a more portable setup than my current 6u rack. This audio interface might be nice for a small 10 ch input setup with an ADAT equipped 8 channel preamp. With a D/A converter, one could do simple FOH in addition to recording, with a midi controller and a 2u case.

I've been using my duet for years now. This thing is not even out. Please have some perspective.

Nobody has even tried it to know if it's got a decent pre-amp and adc... and that's what people buy when they buy a duet.

This is correct. The duet sounds great. But lack of separate volume control for headphones and monitors, and lack of additional digital i/o was a slightly big mistake on apogees part. Spdif and two separate volumes would have made it 3 or 4 times as awesome, and would probably not have been a big deal to include from a manufacturing and cost standpoint. But it's not there.
But as I said before, the only thing this RME thing has in common with the duet is the shape. It's a totally different kind of audio interface as far as connectivity and sheer number of ins and outs. And it's usb, not FW. It's not an apples to apples comparison... even if both are shaped like apples.

I was literally going to order a Duet TOMORROW, but this looks interesting.

It took about half year for the Fireface UC to go from announcement to shipment. I don't know if this the normal procedure for RME though. An there are no specifications on it's analog performance yet so I don't expect it to
be released too soon. End of August maybe?

so, you are saying that all small footprint pre's perform exactly the same ?

exactly? ah, no. but i will tell you that the degrees of separation between most of these interfaces in respect to both adda and preamps is so minimal that i wouldn't spend a nano sec worrying about it, personally. the ti pga2500 chip is for instance commonly used amongst competitors and in relevance to this thread is used by both RME and Apogee, so take that for what it's worth...

i'll concern myself more with i/o, i/o flexibility and driver stability. there are only a handful of choices in this mid-grade range anyways....

The latency for Mac is amazing - 14 samples = 1ms. Seems to be built for running something like Ableton on a MBP at a gig and then take your rig home and use your preamps with adat option or running Guitar Rig. Brilliant!